A gown is worn by a surgeon as a protective barrier between the surgeon and the patient. A gown helps to keep the surgeon any any clothing under the gown clean. The outer surface of the gown is clean and sterile to help prevent bacterial transmission to the patient during surgery.
The use of polymeric materials or coatings as a part of surgical gowns is becoming common due to their potential for reducing lint and for providing a liquid impervious barrier. The entire gown is generally not made of an impervious material because such a gown would cause thermal discomfort to the surgeon. However, in certain critical areas such as the forearm region, an impervious material is often employed to maintain a total barrier between the surgeon and the patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,741 issued Apr. 25, 1972, to Blanco discloses a surgical oversleeve made of fluid impervious material that is pulled on over a surgical gown to protect the forearm area. The oversleeve is held in position by elastic bands around the circumferences of its open ends which grip the wrist and upper arm of the wearer. U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,728 issued Mar. 4, 1975, to Krzewinski discloses a surgical gown with sleeves made of a liquid impervious polyethylene coated fabric. Impervious sleeves such as those disclosed in Blanco and Krzewinski protect the patient by preventing bacteria laden liquid, e.g. perspiration, from flowing through the gown from the surgeon to the outer surface of the gown where it may contact the patient. The smooth outer surface of the impervious materials used in these examples are nonlinting and thus also provide protection against contamination of the surgical opening from particulates sloughed from a gown sleeve.
A surgeon's glove has a cuff which extends a distance up the forearm covering the cuff of the sleeve of a surgical gown. The glove and the impervious portion of a sleeve as described above will combine to create an impervious barrier between the surgeon's hand and arm and the patient up to the top of the impervious portion of the sleeve, which is generally in the region of the surgeon's upper arm.
The cuff of a surgical glove which extends onto the forearm of a surgeon has some tendency to roll down as the surgeon's arm and hand move. When the portion of the forearm region of the sleeve of a surgeon's gown which the glove cuff covers has an outer surface layer of material having a low coefficient of friction, the occurrence of cuff roll-down of the surgeon's glove is substantially enhanced. U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,293 issued June 20, 1978, to Heavner et al. discloses one potential solution to the glove roll-down problem: a surgeon's glove having a textured cuff. However, such gloves would cost substantially more than the smooth-cuff surgeons gloves in general use. Also, the textured glove cuff would be expected to provide a less tight seal between the glove cuff and gown sleeve such that contaminants would be more likely to pass from the surgeon to the patient.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a surgeon's gown sleeve that helps prevent cuff roll-down of the surgeon's glove.
Another object of this invention is to provide a surgeon's gown sleeve that will provide, in conjunction with the surgeon's glove, a fluid impervious, non-linting covering for the surgeon's hand and lower arm.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings.